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WATCH: Brazen Shoplifters Hit Grocery Store in Nation's Capital as Crime Crisis Worsens

Spencer Brown
Spencer Brown  |  June 07, 2022 8:05 PM

A Giant grocery chain location in Northeast Washington, D.C. — roughly one mile from the United States Capitol — was among the latest to be hit by apparently brazen thieves who quickly yet calmly empty shelves into carts and plastic bags before apparently making their way through the door without paying. It was the kind of scene Democrats try to brush off or say is blown out of proportion, but one that is now hitting a neighborhood in which several of them stay while doing business at the Capitol.

The video tweeted out in Tuesday's early afternoon hours shows a crew of at least three bandits wearing ski masks loading laundry detergent pods into a cart already containing what appears to be mayonnaise, salsa, and a jar of pickles. Another fills a plastic trash bag with bottles of detergent and the third caught on video jogs down the aisle with a reusable shopping bag — how environmentally conscious — presumably also filled with pilfered goods. 

According to the person who tweeted the video, there was a security guard and a police officer outside the Giant. When contacted by Townhall, the video's source said that the thieves weren't violent inside the store, but one threatened to "kick my ass if I tried to stop him." He also confirmed that he didn't see anyone get arrested and, upon leaving the store, the police officer was gone.

Another shopper in the video walks by as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening. In D.C. and many other large cities around the country, the obvious issues happening are just ignored by passersby because such crimes have become the norm.

In the interest of disclosure, this writer used to live across the street from the Giant being burgled — in a building where several members of Congress lived. And while crime was on the rise in the neighborhood, this sort of thing wasn't common in months past. There was once a man waving a bayonet around while stumbling with his pants around his ankles...but that's a story for another time. 

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D.C. resident and Fox News Correspondent Mark Meredith called the scene captured in the Giant "absolutely unacceptable" in a subsequent tweet containing the video. "This is brazen theft happening in broad daylight (and nobody seems to care)," he added. "It is really tough to watch."

The only apparent response to the video from Giant was a request about where the video was taken, after which the brand account said the video has been "shared" with their team — though it seems there's nothing much they could or were willing to do. 

Under Mayor Bowser's leadership, Washington has seen crime increase even while she strangles the city's businesses with on-again, off-again COVID restrictions that are enforced more strictly than crime statutes. She, of course, also turned over swaths of D.C. to violent BLM and Antifa rioters in the summer of 2020 and urged national guard troops to be booted out of the city. As the crew above was robbing the Giant, Mayor Bowser was tweeting about...National Chocolate Ice Cream Day and the resources available to those wanting to open a shop or small business. You can't make this stuff up:

If Bowser wants people to bring their entrepreneurial endeavors to D.C., she could start by keeping thieves from cleaning out store shelves and making a promise not to use her manufactured COVID powers to shut down businesses who won't check customers' papers at the door. One such small business, Big Board DC, was shut down by Bowser's health department and stripped of its license for refusing to comply with her since-rescinded vaccine mandate — it's located just one block from the Giant that was hit by thieves on Tuesday.

So far in 2022, homicides are already up nine percent over this point last year, per D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department statistics. Robberies are up 39 percent. Burglaries are up 11 percent. Violent crime is up 16 percent. It's no wonder that Washington's crime crisis — like many other cities — spirals out of control. Democrat leaders demonize law enforcement, cut police budgets, implement lax prosecution policies, and allow criminals to escalate their offenses without punishment. 

Similar videos of brazen shoplifters in cities like San Francisco — where several big box and corner stores have limited hours or closed locations to limit losses — abound due to lax enforcement of laws or soft-on-crime policies passed by Democrat city leaders. Julio covered one such incident last year, and it's a trend that's continued in smash and grabs that hit cities that have one thing in common: Democrat leadership that's set off lawlessness.